I wish this would happen in all pro sports.
Offline I am all for contact sports and even getting rough in the CONTEXT of the game. But I am so fucking sick of players and even fans fighting outside the game.
Soccer fans are notorious for gang fighting internationally. I hate the players in hockey fighting. And I think it is petty and childish for fans to fight each other.
I just watched the interview with the losing American player on the woman's world cup soccer team. She was completely gracious and held no anger to the winners.
Violence from an evolutionary standpoint, in all life, and even in nature, does happen. But as a species, especially when it comes to sports, I think we have a duty to keep it civil and ask that the fans keep it civil. Trash talk is fun, I do it all the time. But to come to blows over something that is supposed to be for the love of the game, and bring people together, should not be turned into real violence that can put people in the hospital or get them killed.
IT IS ONLY A FUCKING GAME.
I think all pro sports, especially contact sports, should condone all physical contact outside the context of the rules of the sport.
Again, I don't mind as a Redskins fan, being teased about how bad we suck right now, and I hate losing to division rivals. BUT I damned sure hate when fucking adults at a bar or at a stadium are willing to pound fists especially over something they are not playing themselves.
Games are something someone will win and someone will lose. It is NOT life threatening to lose, nor does trash talk have to be anything more than friendly teasing among friends.
I wish players would advocate not fighting and tell the fans that fighting is unacceptable.
This woman who lost played hard and physically and aggressively BUT, when a player knows what it is like to win, then they can be happy for the team that won without holding a grudge to the point of it becoming a childish gang mentality.
"Grudges" on the pro level, should only be in the context of "we'll get you next time", but not "I hate you because you beat me". It is ok to hate losing, and it is ok to try to beat the other team. But it is not ok to treat the other team as if they are a real street gang with real weapons who will really kill you.
The bottom line is that games are just that, games. And the players at the pro level should not be selling a gang mentality to the fans who can and do in reality turn it into real violence.
I applaud this woman and she should serve as an example as to how pro players should behave.
MEN at the pro level need to take a lesson from this woman.
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The male players face some very stiff penalties for violence as it is - for example a few years back there was a professional soccer player (don't remember his name) who got angry and headbutted a member of the other team - and he was expelled from the sport for life.
Optimism is reality, pessimism is the fantasy that you know enough to be cynical
I've just had a look at a couple of videos, and I expect the player you are talking about is the goalkeeper, Hope Solo. She deserves to be named. Not only were her comments about the match and her opponents outstanding, she is widely recognised as one of the best players in the world. It is so nice, for an Australian
, to see some real humility and decency in an American professional athlete. I'm trying to teach my five-year-old how to lose graciously, and he couldn't have a better role model.
Yeah, I agree, but I think a lot of the negativity is more prominent because the media focuses on it. I think most people in most sports are good sports. Many of them view themselves as professionals doing their job. But then some idiot throws fits, blows up, cusses etc. and the media focuses on that one person. I have seen this happening in poker.
As a long time fan I have seen the world series of poker main event go from a small event with a couple hundred players who were professionals and acted accordingly. Now you have almost 7000 players, and most of them are decent people but ESPN loves to focus on the handful of screwballs and obnoxious assholes who are more about making a spectacle than playing the game. They get more tv time than the quiet skilled poker player which in turn encourages more of that behavior.
The WSOP has attempted to crack down on that type of behavior but it is difficult to walk the line of punishing those who are obscene but not put "excessive celebration" penalties on someone who is rightfully celebrating winning a big pot or putting penalties on someone who is doing some strategic trash talking (a time honored tradition and important part of what is a psychological game). I think if ESPN simply ignored the fools, most of them would disappear. You don't see that type of behavior in most poker rooms, and when you do, the players make it quite clear to the offender that they are not welcome (after relieving them of their cash of course) To ESPN's credit, this year they have done a much better job focusing on the game rather than the drama created by nuts than they have for the last 7 or 8 years. I hope ESPN keeps going that way because it had gotten to the point that I didn't even watch the world series last year.
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Thanks
Optimism is reality, pessimism is the fantasy that you know enough to be cynical